Best way to distribute program with modules

[January Weiner]

Hi,

I have written quite a complex (at least for me) program of >10k lines of
code, packed in a main file and a dozen modules. While I am writing up the
publication (yep, it's a scientific program), I am wondering, what would be
the best way to package it.

Specifically, I would like to make the installation for the user as
painless as possible. Right now I write something along the lines "move
the Xxx directory into /usr/local/lib/site_perl or any other apropriate
directory with Perl modules", but this is hardly satisfactory.

I really have no experience with that, and regretfully, I will not have
time to devote a lot of attention to proper packaging, because other issues
around the publication are more pressing. Is there anything simple I could
do? I know I could use the PAR module (actually, I use pp to create
binaries), but I would much prefer to have a simple "clever" installer script.

Best regards,

January

 

[Ben Morrow]

Hi,

I have written quite a complex (at least for me) program of >10k lines of
code, packed in a main file and a dozen modules. While I am writing up the
publication (yep, it's a scientific program), I am wondering, what would be
the best way to package it.

Specifically, I would like to make the installation for the user as
painless as possible. Right now I write something along the lines "move
the Xxx directory into /usr/local/lib/site_perl or any other apropriate
directory with Perl modules", but this is hardly satisfactory.

Is there something wrong with creating a CPAN-style distribution?
'tar -xzvf $TAR; perl Makefile.PL; make test; make install' is fairly
simple, or even simpler 'cpan -i pip; pip $TAR'.

Ben